MEGATRENDS AND MEDIA

MEDIA AND MARKETING GAMES OF THE OLIGARCHS
resolved and will take many years before people and their mind have been
reeducated but we have to start one day.“ 13
In the July edition of TYP 1930 J. Brabec in his regular column What is new
in our current advertising? admits that in the end of the 19 th century
no one was concerned about the facts regarding the numbers of copies
of newspapers and periodicals: „Many publishers perceived the question
about the number of sold copies of that magazines as impertinence. Others
were very willing to provide their own data also called “information” and
spoke about millions when in reality it was hundreds. Their smart guess
about the number of copies a gullible advertiser would ind credible was
their only limit, the only thing that held them back. … When the Audit
Bureau of Circulation was set up in 1914, our advertisers had accurate and
honest reports on the circulation …. No advertiser today has to buy blindly
the distribution. The reports A.B.C, indicate the checked igures not only in
total but also speciied according to the different regions of our country.
But it has much other useful information about the ways of distribution.“ 14
As stated in the REPORT ON THE ACTIVITY OF OUR CLUB IN 1930 15
produced by then secretary of the REKLUB dr. Jan Brabec they
successfully completed the irst stage of the objectivization of the data
about the circulation of magazines: „The other activity we very much
cared about this year was to publish the „Reports on the circulation and
distribution of Czechoslovak magazines.“ The former committee for audits
of the circulation of magazines was immediately after the general assembly
liquidated and it was our Club that directly took action in this respect. The
outcome of this work, our irst „Report“ – in spite of covering a relatively
small part of magazines published in our country – is a real action one can
hardly ignore. It shows a feasible way to introduce more honesty in our
advertisements and also more proitability for all the involved. Initially,
anything new faces resistance and so we should not be surprised that
this activity of ours faced a lot of resistance, primarily, from publishers.
However, I am sure that in due time more and more publishers understand
that to give reliable information to advertisers means more and more
adverts bought and can do no harm.“ In February 1931 the Reklub
publishes the results of their activities in a book. The Reklub says in the
preface to the book 16 : „There are two bases, two necessary conditions for
13 TYP 3/1930, p. 135.
14 TYP 7/1930, p. 324
15 3 years of the reklub – how the reklub was born and growing, p. 33-34.
16 Report on the circulation and distribution of czechoslovak magazines in
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